Extinguishing mercury



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ADOLPH SOMMER, OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA.

EXTINGUISHING MERCURY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Batent No. 416,760, dated December 10, 1889.

Application filed August 81 1887. Serial No. 246.422. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ADOLPH SOMMER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Berkeley, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Extinguishing Mercury; and I do declare that the following is an ex act description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in pharmaceutical ma nipulations to applyand execute the same.

Heretofore, when metallic mercury was to be brought to a state of fine division, it was generally agitated or triturated with either a natural fat, oil, or oleo-resin, glycerine, honey, or some dry powdered substance. The time which this operation required was always a comparatively long one, lasting, according to the quantity of the mercury operated on and the efficiency of the apparatus or operator, from two to twenty-four hours. Another disadvantage of the means heretofore employed consists in the impossibility of producing a highly concentrated form of extinguished mercury containing, say, ninety per cent. of metallic mercury, which would be permanent and not allow the minute mercurial globules to coalesce on standing for a long time. These difficulties I have overcome by using as a Vehicle for the mercury certain compounds formed by mixing on'e part of chloride of sulphur with seven to eight parts of a natural fat or fatty oil. The compounds which I generally employ are those made from cottonseed oil and from tallow; but many others made from other oils and fats answer this purpose equally well. Although itis not absolutely necessary to have such compounds neutral, yet, as a precaution, I prefer to use them in that state.

The manner in which I accomplish my object is as follows: One hundred parts of fat or oil are mixed and combined with about fourteen parts (more or less) of chloride of sulphur, either in the manner described in Patent No. 389,021, of September 4, 1888, entitled Compounds of tallow and chloride of sulphur, if a tallow-like fat is used, or in the manner described in application No. 209,637, filed July 31, 1886, entitled Viscid fatty compounds, if a fluid oil is used, and the compound made neutral by any of those processes described in the application already alluded to or in Patent No. 389,020, of September 4, 1888, entitled Process of makchine, such as are employed in the manufacture of mercurial ointment. The machine or mortar is kept at a temperature of about 50 centigrade. By active trituration the mercury is mixed .Wltll the compound and will, according to the quantity operated on,

be found completely extinguished in from five to thirty minutes. I

When I desire to produce an extinguished mercury, which shall keep unaltered for an indefinite length of time, I employ as a vehicle a mixture of about equal part-s of the cotton-seed oil and the tallow compound. From mercury extinguished by this means all the weaker medicinal preparations of metallic mercury are easily prepared, as follows: mercurial ointment, by adding to the extinguisheimercury a sufficient quantity of lard and tallow; mercurial plaster, by adding to the extinguished mercury a sufficient amount of leadplaster; mercurial pill-mass, by addmg" the extinguished mercury to a proper proportion of confection of roses; mercury and chalk, by adding to the extinguished mercury first a volatile diluent-such as ether, naphtha, bisulphide of carbon-and then incorporating with this mixture a proper amount of prepared chalk and exposing the whole compound to the air until the volatile diluent has evaporated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters nated oils or fats.

ADOLPH SOMMER. Witnesses:

R. F. GRIs'r, GEO. H. NAGHTRIEB. 

